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South Africa have the better bowling attack, without doubt.
Steyn is 100% more consistent than Mitchell Johnson, however, the question is: will the real Mitchell Johnson turn up?
The two bowlers are very different batsmen don’t really fear Steyn, they fear for their wicket, yes, but with Mitchell Johnson, they actually fear getting seriously injured. This has to do with the fact that he is a leftie and that he’s probably the fastest bowler in the world right now. The combination makes him a very tricky customer indeed.
So that give Johnson a fear factor, but Steyn is a far more capable, consistent and complete bowler.
Harris and Siddle are both great bowler, but I give Philander and Morkel the edge, because Philander has one of the greatest strike rates in the history of bowling, and Morkel is just a freak of nature, his height coupled with his pace make him a very awkward bowler for batsmen to face.
There is no doubt that Lyon at his best offers more than Robin Peterson, more turn and more wickets, however that is fair given that the Proteas usually use Peterson in a holding role to dry up runs. Lyon does give the Australians a spinning edge in their attack. It mustn’t be forgotten that Peterson adds valuable runs with the bat to his arsenal.
For me out of four head to heads in the bowling department, South Africa wins three of them, The two openers and the first change bowler, whilst Australia can claim a better spinner.
But, whilst I have no qualms about our bowling attack, I think it will be in the batting where the Test match is won or lost and right now that doesn’t inspire confidence.
South Africa’s batting has recently been our weakness, our bowling has been our strength. Thinking of our batsmen taking on a fired up australian attack doesn’t bring me great confidence, especially without the assured presence of Jacques Kallis. For years Jacques Kallis has been the glue that holds our batting lineup together so it baffles me that they would bring in McLaren or Parnell to replace him. What they need is a batting all-rounder.
In fact what I would do is drop the spinner Peterson, drop the bowling all-rounder and bring in two players: a pure bowler and a batsman: Quinton de Kock and Kyle Abbott, and hope that JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis can do a job filling up the extra overs, whilst trusting the four seamers to do the business.
Steyn is 100% more consistent than Mitchell Johnson, however, the question is: will the real Mitchell Johnson turn up?
The two bowlers are very different batsmen don’t really fear Steyn, they fear for their wicket, yes, but with Mitchell Johnson, they actually fear getting seriously injured. This has to do with the fact that he is a leftie and that he’s probably the fastest bowler in the world right now. The combination makes him a very tricky customer indeed.
So that give Johnson a fear factor, but Steyn is a far more capable, consistent and complete bowler.
Harris and Siddle are both great bowler, but I give Philander and Morkel the edge, because Philander has one of the greatest strike rates in the history of bowling, and Morkel is just a freak of nature, his height coupled with his pace make him a very awkward bowler for batsmen to face.
There is no doubt that Lyon at his best offers more than Robin Peterson, more turn and more wickets, however that is fair given that the Proteas usually use Peterson in a holding role to dry up runs. Lyon does give the Australians a spinning edge in their attack. It mustn’t be forgotten that Peterson adds valuable runs with the bat to his arsenal.
For me out of four head to heads in the bowling department, South Africa wins three of them, The two openers and the first change bowler, whilst Australia can claim a better spinner.
But, whilst I have no qualms about our bowling attack, I think it will be in the batting where the Test match is won or lost and right now that doesn’t inspire confidence.
South Africa’s batting has recently been our weakness, our bowling has been our strength. Thinking of our batsmen taking on a fired up australian attack doesn’t bring me great confidence, especially without the assured presence of Jacques Kallis. For years Jacques Kallis has been the glue that holds our batting lineup together so it baffles me that they would bring in McLaren or Parnell to replace him. What they need is a batting all-rounder.
In fact what I would do is drop the spinner Peterson, drop the bowling all-rounder and bring in two players: a pure bowler and a batsman: Quinton de Kock and Kyle Abbott, and hope that JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis can do a job filling up the extra overs, whilst trusting the four seamers to do the business.
